41 Life-and-Death
Dilan’s body might be a wreck, but his legs were still unscathed.
Because of that, he forced the rest of his body to work.
His left hand grasped a mashed body of a rat lying on the ground, which he threw towards the face of the Krendel.
Dilan was unable to see properly, but he could roughly gauge the location of its face.
Thus, the moment he heard a ‘thwack’ indicating that he had hit his target could be heard, he shot up from the ground.
The bleeding on both of his upper arms had worsened, and severe dizziness overcame him, but all of this was not important as he forced himself ahead.
He could not afford to die right now.
Yet, attacking the Krendel was not possible either because he was currently at a great disadvantage.
The only attack he could issue would be to jump towards the remains of the Stone Spear that was stuck in the huge Krendel’s head.
Faintly grasping his weapon, Dilan used the remaining effect of the [Thunder Step] ability to shoot towards the T-intersection that led to the left corridor.
To his right, he could still see the blueish gleaming Gate, while the hall to the second floor could be seen to his left.
Dilan didn’t even notice that the door that separated the second floor’s hall and the left corridor had been opened, nor did he see that a small figure was now standing in the doorframe.-.
The small figure was not even 1.7 meters tall and smiled ominously the moment Dilan’s eyes fell on it.
Tiny electricity currents enveloped Dilan’s feet that were smeared with dried blood, just for him to take deep breaths when he noticed that the boost of his Agility disappeared.
The [Thunder Step] ability’s effect had worn off, and Dilan almost instantaneously noticed that his body was about to collapse.
Blood trickled down his face and arms.
He had lost an unimaginable amount of blood already but still managed to stand on his feet, ready to face the monster ahead.
His eyes were ice-cold, and without a single trace of fear.
With his unwavering eyes focused on the blurry figure of the huge Krendel, Dilan prepared himself to attack in a suicidal manner.
‘What will you do now?’ The little figure thought to herself seeing that Dilan was preparing himself to do something.
Based on his severe injuries, he should have collapsed long since. In fact, he should not even be fit enough to stand let alone fight and might have already died, if he were to be an ordinary human from before the Primordial Ascension.
But too many things had changed, including the endurance of the human body.
However, even then, his injuries were a huge hindrance and prevented him from being able to move properly.
As such, it was merely Dilan’s willpower and determination to survive that allowed him to stand on the ground.
His stamina was fully drained, and so was his Mana, while his Health stat hit a dangerously low level.
Gritting his teeth, he saw that the huge Krendel slashed out with its right claw and was ready to tear Dilan apart.
Barely lowering his body, Dilan decided to risk it and be a little reckless, which led him to take a step ahead.
This allowed him to evade the slash by a hair’s breadth.
But what he didn’t expect to happen was that it would be impossible for him to make use of his higher Agility.
He wanted to take one last jump towards the head of the huge Krendel in order to push the remains of the Reinforced Stone Spear in its head, and kill it for good.
In fact, Dilan had no idea how it was still alive despite the Stone Spear that was still lodged in its head.
This made no sense, and the only thing he could bet on was that he must have missed the monster’s brain by a mere centimeter!
Unfortunately, Dilan was not able to jump toward the huge Krendel’s head as he could barely move his body when suddenly the left arm of the Krendel lunged out at him.
It reached him in an instant, and a straight punch with a tightly clenched fist hit him in the center of his abdomen.
The might of a being with a Strength that was higher than six times the average human strength before the Primordial Ascension impacted on him.
This took away his breath and it felt like his internal organs were being torn apart.
The huge Krendel had learned from its earlier mistake, and instinctively punched Dilan with its left fist instead of risking injuring itself again!
When it was smashed into the wall, the concrete cracked under its weight. Small bits of brick and stones fell to the ground, followed by Dilan whose body slumped to the ground, and he stayed there, unmoving.
Several bones in his body cracked and blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth, and his eyes felt heavy.
Even if he wanted to, there was nothing he could do against the huge Krendel, whose biggest advantage had been its overly powerful and rock-solid defense.
If the Reinforced Stone Spear would have been strong enough to pierce through its hide, the fight would have ended with an easy victory on his side.
But he didn’t have a stronger weapon and did everything he could using some technique, his weak weapon and brute force.
Forcing his body to exceed its limitation once again, Dilan lifted his hand the moment the huge Krendel slashed at him, mercilessly.
It was his last effort to block the attack and survive.
Yet, Dilan was fully aware that it was an entirely useless move.
With his eyes forced open, Dilan continued to face his opponent until the last moment.
Dilan was not giving up, and would continue to fight, and it was just his body that couldn’t go anymore.
However, just when he expected that everything was over for him, a bolt of lightning flashed through the left corridor.
Dilan had only been able to see a purple flash, followed by the sound of something being hit by high voltage, and then everything went silent.
It was eerie, unexpected, and Dilan’s breath hitched in his throat.
The Krendel’s movement stopped abruptly as well, and its eyes widened as the huge monster collapsed right next to him, its head blasting in the wall.
It had been killed on the spot, and the bolt of lightning pierced through its head, penetrating it easily.
In the blink of an eye, the huge Krendel was dead!
Everything Dilan had been incapable of was easily solved by someone he was not even able to see.
Forcing himself to turn towards the right side, Dilan could barely open his blood-smeared mouth as he forced himself to speak,
“Who..are you?”
He was unable to see anything other than the blurry outlines of a human. But this human being didn’t seem to be interested in small talk.
“Someone, who is not really interested in you anymore. See you later, I guess. Don’t die until then, it would be a waste!”
The voice of a young, unfamiliar woman rang through his ears.
Just a moment later, his unknown savior decided to leave as she turned around and trotted her way towards the hospital’s third floor.
She didn’t care about the Survivors in the hospital, and had entered it just for one purpose!
Saving Dilan was something she did on a whim.
His desire to stay alive, to keep fighting, to end the life of the monster that was evidently more powerful, even if it was just because of the difference in their means to attack and defend, had made her want to help him.
But that was the only attention she gave him and left Dilan all by himself, who was surrounded by hundreds of corpses, including the corpse of the huge Krendel!
This was the one and only present she provided to Dilan, for his inhuman-like efforts to end the life of the huge Krendel and save himself.
In her opinion, he deserved to survive as he kept on fighting till his presumed last breath and didn’t allow all of his struggle to wear him down.
She only hoped that she hadn’t somehow given a psychopath a second chance to live, to become stronger, and to start a massacre in a world where only the strong ruled.
And it were the strong who decided over life-and-death of weaklings!